1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to audio description, and more specifically to indicating the availability of audio description for visually impaired individuals.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Audio description is generally known in the art to provide visually impaired individuals with an audible description of events occurring on screen for various forms of visual media. The visually impaired, whether they be blind or impaired to a lesser degree, are consuming visual media more than ever, and with the increasing availability of audio description for visual media, especially for television programming and DVD or BluRay media, they are also able to enjoy that visual media more than ever.
Audio description, also known as video description, is an audio track that contains vocal description of the visual aspects, context, or action of a scene. Audio description is generally transmitted or stored as an alternate audio stream that can be selected played instead of, or in addition to, the main audio stream. For example, a user can generally enable audio description on modern televisions or set-top boxes through on-screen menu options to elect the alternate audio stream.
Currently, a visually impaired person is limited in their ability to find items of visual media that contain audio description. The visually impaired cannot read text descriptions of visual media nor can they see visual symbols, both of which may otherwise give an indication of the availability of the audio description for a particular item of visual media. As such, a visually impaired person can only find an item of visual media (such as a television channel or program) that does in fact contain a corresponding audio description by scrolling through every available item of visual media until he or she finds one that has audio description (i.e., by “channel surfing”). This can be time consuming for the visually impaired individual and can hinder their efficiency or enjoyment in consuming visual media. Additionally, a visually impaired individual cannot plan ahead to find visual media containing audio description they would like to watch or record in the future as they are limited simply to listening for audio description for items of visual media currently being played.